Victoria, BC

A Day in the life at China Hotel, A Marriott Hotel by Kevin Li

Hello from Guangzhou, China. I have been doing my internship as an F&B management trainee at China Hotel, A Marriott Hotel since June 2011. To begin with, I would like to give you some facts about China Hotel. China Hotel was opened China Hotel first opened on the 18th of June 1984 and became the first hotel managed by Marriott in Mainland China in 1998. After that China Hotel changed the name to China Hotel, A Marriott Hotel. China Hotel, A Marriott Hotel, has 18 floors, offers 736 guest rooms, 114 suites; it has 8 Restaurants and Bars, 16 meeting rooms, including a large Ballroom (24,262 sq ft. of total meeting space). (http://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-information/travel/canmc-china-hotel-a-marriott-hotel-guangzhou/)

Four Seasons Restaurant Dining Area

After a quick tour in F&B outlets in China Hotel by working in its 5 restaurants and steward, I start working in Café veranda the busiest F&B outlet from July 1st. A normal day for me in Café veranda would look like this.

VIP room in Prime Steakhouse

Starting a new day is always exciting but difficult at the same time. I can’t believe I almost overslept. It’s 5:30 already. To get to the hotel by 6:15, I have rushed for a quick shower and have my breakfast within 30 minutues. Guangzhou’s summer is hot and humility, even a 10-minutes walk from home, I am already sweating at the moment I reached my locker.

6:30: Show up in Café Veranda. Café Veranda has approximately 250 seats, it offers A La Carte and buffet in breakfast. First thing I will do is to check the supervisor logbook and the dinning reservation. In the supervisor logbook, information such as the hotel occupancy rate, memo and reservation. I can have a basic expectation of what is going on today.

6:45: A 5-minute-morning briefing was held in the kitchen area. The morning shift supervisor holds the briefing. Staff will be assigned to different sections.

7:00-10:30: Café Veranda start providing the breakfast service.

I would like to share a sample service sequence to demonstrate how I serve a guest.

Greet the guest: “Good morning, how are you doing today?”

Enquire for seating: “Would you like to sit at a smoking or non smoking table? Would you like a table by the window or shall I get you a table near the buffet? “

After seating the guest, I will ask, “May I serve you some coffee or tea?”

Through breakfast I will chat with the guest, try to build on relationship and record their preferences. Besides that I will also clear empty plates and glasses and refill coffee or tea in a timely manner.

10:30: Time to have my early lunch in associate restaurant. The lunch is free, you only need to tap the associate ID card at its entrance.

11:30: Back to Café Veranda. Our lunch buffet is open from 12-14:30. I need to ensure the food listed on the printed out lunch buffet menu, which will be different everyday, has matched on food on the buffet table.

Cafe Veranda

12:00 -14:30: Cafe Veranda offers A La Carte and buffet for lunch as well. Different from the breakfast, Café Veranda will have theme buffet based on the promotion. Café Veranda hosts different theme festival every month. For example, from August 19th to September 4th, we will have a Southeast Asia festive. Today, we need to collect lunch ticket from the guests who were prepaid by their company. Once the guest set down, we need to serve them coffee or tea, at the same time ask for the lunch ticket. As today we do not have much guest order A La Carte, restaurant gets slow at around 13:30. The supervisor asks us to flipping table to the dinner setting, some staff was sent to polish cutlery.

14:30: Wouter, the F&B Service Manager and Sally, the Restaurant Manager are hosting our 15-mintute daily briefing. Basically, Sally will go though information in the logbook again, and go though the Marriot’s daily basics. Later, Wouter will share his idea about the service challenges he has observed today. Moreover, he will give suggestions or let us to discuss a proper way to improve service quality.

One thought on “A Day in the life at China Hotel, A Marriott Hotel by Kevin Li”

Kevin–it looks like you have a great team here and are hopping busy–good to see! You’ve made a big transition from quiet Victoria to a bustling, busy, enormous hotel with a great work ethic. Well done. -Mags

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